Device to prevent railway-rails from spreading



(-No Model.)

: o. KEELER. DEVICE TO PREVENT RAILWAY RAILS FROM SPREADING. No.535,290. Patented Mar. 5, 1895.

TATES ie-wr i- NITE ATENT Fries,

CALVIN KEELER, OF HOBART, NEW YORK.

SPECIFICATION forming part Of Letters Patent NO. 535,290, dated March 5,1895.

Application filed October 29, 1894. Serial No. 527,310- (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CALVIN KEELER, a citizen of the United States, and aresident of Hobart, in the county of Delaware and State of New York,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Devices to PreventRailroad -Rails from Spreading; and I do hereby declare that thefollowing is a full, clear, and exact description of theinvention, whichwill enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make anduse the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, whichform a part of this specification, and in which Figure 1 is aplan, ortop view, of a section of railroad track equipped with my improveddevice for holding the rails to gage and preventing them from spreading.Fig. 2 is a transverse sectional view on line x-w,in Fig. 1; and Fig. 3is a similar view on the parallel vertical plane indicated by the brokenline marked y--y. Fig.4 is a detail view of one of the clamps.

Like letters of reference designate corresponding parts in all thefigures.

My invention relates to devices or appliances for keeping railroad railsto gage and preventing them from spreading, and consists in animprovement upon the device for which Letters Patent of the UnitedStates, No. 445,449, were granted to me on the 27th day of January,1891, whereby the construction of the device is not only muchsimplified, but better results are obtained and the application of thedevice to a railroad track facilitated.

On the accompanying drawings, the reference-letter A denotes the rails,and B the ties of the track; the road-bed being shown at O.

The rails are fastened to the ti es by spikes, as

usual, or in any other approved manner; and the lines of rail onopposite sides are connected by tierods D, which pass transverselythrough the road-bed below the track, and are inserted, at oppositeends, through the railclamps E, E. The latter are castings, of anysuitable metal, of the configuration shown on the drawings, viz.,comprising a longitudinally apertured base e, a notched recess orrail-seat f, and an overlapping hearing or abutment g.

The ends of the tie-rod or connecting bar D are inserted through theapertures e e in the castings E E, one at each end, and arescrewthreaded at their projecting outer ends, d d, to receive the nuts Fand washers Gr, which, when screwed up home, will bear or abut againstthe straight outer sides 72 h of the clamps.Theendoftheoverhangingbearings g g are also made straight, orapproximately so, to fit the adjacent sides of the rail-web or neck, I,against which these hearings abut. Two sets of these clamps arerequired, which are alike in all respects, except that the recessf, forthe footor bottom-flange of the rail,

is made larger in the clamps E, appertaining to one set, than in those(E) belonging to the other set. In applying the clamps, one of the set Ewith an enlarged recess or rail seat f, is used at each rail-joint, and,therefore, on opposite sides of the track; the seat-recess f beinglargeenough to take in the rail-foot and web, as well as the fish-plate Jappertaining to the joint. As the rails are laid to break joints, therewill be no rail-joint opposite to the clamp E, and here aclamp, E, ofthe other set is used, the seat recess f of which is just large enoughto fit closely upon and against the adjacent side of the rail-foot IIand web or neck I. After the clamps E and E have been placed in positionupon the rails, opposite to each other, in the manner described, theyare connected by the tie-rods D through the road-bed C, after which thewashers G G and nuts F F are placed upon the tapped ends 61 d of therod, and screwed up tight against the contiguous straight sides h h ofthe clamps, which are thus drawn up closely against their respectiverails on opposite sides of the track, and thereby effectually preventthe same from drawing apart or spreading.

It will be observed that this device is exceedingly simple both in theconstruction of f with which the fish plates engage and with Intestimony that I claim the foregoing as apertures e, the oppositely andalternately army own I have hereunto affixed my signature ranged clampsE, having small recessesf, in in presence of two Witnesses.

which the rail bases are seated, and formed CALVIN KEELER. 5 withapertures e, the tie rods D, tapped at op- Witnesses:

posite ends, the nuts F and Washers G, G, sub- STEWART LYON, stantiallyas described. I

J AMES W. LYON.

